Dragon RP; Language and Emotes

[Talitha]

(Okay. Disclaimer Exhibit A: I'm not sure if this is the right place/topic/area for this little meander, but here I go. [8-|])

After perusing the forums a bit I felt the need to take a break from fretting over lairshaping and lair plot sizes and the general frustrations of Dragons altogether. I'm about to set myself on the Helian Path, I want something to be cheerful over! So I decided to think about the postive aspects of Dragonhood, and the wonderful community we do have in-game (Order Shard RP folks, I luv ya! ^_^), regardless of mechanical deficiency or our sum total of three built-in animated emotes. (/shake. /rollover. /playdead. Yarr. [8-)])

So I rattled some thoughts around in my brain a while to see what might fall out; as it so happened I remembered the Dragon Languages that various people have worked out--I think Keir Chet k'Eilerten'sdialect is most well-known in-game, as I've heard it quite often around. It occurred to me as I contemplated that Dragons truly might not have a type of language as bipeds view it--a thing comprised of letters, consonants and vowels. A Dragon's "word" for an animal, such as a bear, might be a short bark of a growl similar to the sound the animal makes; for small toolsor biped trappings, Dragons may not have a "word" at all for such objects.

A Dragon's native language might encompass all sorts of sounds which no biped could replicate; growls andsnarls of course, perhaps evensubsonic elephantlike rumblings that could carry over many miles (tells?). And then into the higher spectrum,trumpets, screeches, roars,and hisses, perhapsin the manner of raptors or crocodiles. And certainly a visual element; a set of head or movement of tail to convey mood,bating of the wings for emphasis or display, gestures of the foreclaws for tone and direction.

Making sense yet? ^_^;

In example,one Dragon might rumble to another, "Beware! Aegis soldiers are coming!" But the undertones of his growl might convey either warning, or nervousness. The set of his wings, tail, or head might convey either confidence, or fear.

Rather complicated for in-game, though.... [:(]

But! This brings me to the central point--Dragon RP in regards to language, especially in the presence of bipeds. If bipeds truly cannot speak a Dragon's tongue, and may lack the hearing range necessary to fully understand it, it can be hard to rp with those bipeds who may pick up the languages on a website and, unknowingly, attempt to hold conversation with Dragons (which, as I'm told, is frowned upon). Now, I'm not sure how this all is handled between guilds/players individually. But for the sake of RP, I wondered if judicious use of tells and emotes could liven up an interaction between a couple Dragons and bipeds.

For example (names have been changed to protect the innocent):
Smaug (56 Lunus Adult) and Puff (52 Helian Adult) are having a conversation with Tiger (60 Saris Monk) andLeif (48 Half-Giant Warrior). For the most part, the Dragons will speak the common tongue when they wish to communicate with bipeds. However, Smaug theLunus has a rather negative view of Leif's intelligence and wishes to comment so to his Helian companion, without deigning to blurt it obviously in the Common tongue (and the insult works sooo much better in Dragon).

Leif: "So where are those Spiders again?"
Puff: "We just told you."
Tiger: /em laughs. "I'll lead the way."
Smaug: /em rumbles with a toss of his head, snorting, while rolling his eyes to Puff.
Smaug: /tell Puff "That Half-Giant's a few coffers short of a hoard, isn't he?"
Puff: /em lets out a chuckling growl.
Puff: /tell Smaug "Just about."

(This example was in no way intended to demean the intelligence of Half-Giants in general. Only the fictional personage of Leif the Warrior was maligned. ^_^)

With proper use of emotes and tells, one could offer the illusion of speaking in a language no biped could understand or duplicate. Lunus Dragons might enjoy this for various reasons (who wants to use that chattering biped-speech anyway?), especially when wishing to communicate to others without (nosy? [;)]) bipeds listening in. However, it's rather work-intensive to pull off. While this may be fun, and perhaps useful for teasingbipeds ([:P]), it obviously wouldn't work too well in larger groups or main chats where there are too many people to manage tells to, or everyone is on the same "page" anyhow.

There. Anyway, that's just my little nonsensical rambling on the subject. (Too much time on my hands!) ^_^; Make of it what you will; it is neither suggestion nor request, just observation. I hope it was somewhat coherent and understandable. Thoughts/replies/rebuttals welcome! I know I didn't cover all the bases with this, I'll leave that to the professionals!

Thanks for listening!
~Talitha


__________________________________________________ _____________
Draco: "Stop calling me 'dragon!' I have a name!"
Bowen: "Well what is it?"
Draco: "Hmph. You couldn't possibly pronounce it in your tongue."
__________________________________________________ _____________

[Nisse]

So far, out of all the idea I've seen for dragons speaking, the dragons of The Song in the Silence series by Elizabeth Kerner are what I've liked the best. They speak with a sort of complex telepathy, called Truespeech. They also have a language, all their own.
Not to play down your creative ideas, but I don't see dragons as speaking in growls, etc. Bodily gestures, certainly.

[oneirosuchus]

I like your idea, althugh like you said, it would be rather labor-internsive to pull off ... nonetheless, when I used to RP in webchats, a couple of years ago, we used a method similar to what you're talking about, though in a different way. We all had ICQ running, and the webchat running, and things they the characters needed to know (or not know) or other 'behind the scenes" info we passed in ICQ before writing the posts into the webchat. It worked well, especially in those occassions where we had an audience and we wanted it to be all clean and pretty. ;)

And I agree with your idea about not necessarily using words to speak, either -- at least not in the common usage. Dragon mouths aren't shaped much like human ones, after all, so I imagine it would take some effort for a dragon to learn to speak a naka tongue coherently; the natural language is going to be something that is easier to pronouce, and if nakas don'thear words in those sounds, well ... that's not the dragons' problem.

Languages fascinate me! If I played on Order I might be tempted to hunt you down and chat more,but my home shard is Chaos, and I like it too well to leave for long (I do have a hatchling on Order, but she is neglected, alas).

[Talitha]

I like your idea, althugh like you said, it would be rather labor-internsive to pull off ... nonetheless, when I used to RP in webchats, a couple of years ago, we used a method similar to what you're talking about, though in a different way. We all had ICQ running, and the webchat running, and things they the characters needed to know (or not know) or other 'behind the scenes" info we passed in ICQ before writing the posts into the webchat. It worked well, especially in those occassions where we had an audience and we wanted it to be all clean and pretty. [img]/Web/emoticons/emotion-5.gif[/img]

And I agree with your idea about not necessarily using words to speak, either -- at least not in the common usage. Dragon mouths aren't shaped much like human ones, after all, so I imagine it would take some effort for a dragon to learn to speak a naka tongue coherently; the natural language is going to be something that is easier to pronouce, and if nakas don'thear words in those sounds, well ... that's not the dragons' problem.

Languages fascinate me! If I played on Order I might be tempted to hunt you down and chat more,but my home shard is Chaos, and I like it too well to leave for long (I do have a hatchling on Order, but she is neglected, alas).

Thank you for your nice comments. ^_^ And you arewelcome to pop in for a visit and say Hi even if you don't stay for long! (And who knows,I may visit Chaos someday...)

Safe paths and good hunting to you!
~Talitha